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In 2013, the Lord Leonard and Lady Estelle
Wolfson Foundation made a generous pledge to support new access
programmes at the British Museum for a three-year period. These
will provide tailored activities that enable children with special
educational needs (SEN) and adults with learning disabilities or
mental ill health to have positive, creative interactions with the
Museum environment.

The new programmes, launching in 2014, are:

Explore – a Museum programme for adults with learning
disabilities

Working in partnership with London-based community groups, this
programme will facilitate interactions between the participants and
the Museum’s curators, educators and objects. It will provide a
museum course for two groups of participants per year, drawing on a
diverse range of learning methods including object handling,
storytelling, discussion and creative exploration.

Experiencing the Museum – for children with special educational
needs

This programme will enable students with SEN to experience the
British Museum through stimulating the senses. They will engage
with ancient Greece and Rome, medieval Britain and other cultures
and periods through sight, sound, smell and touch. These taught,
object-based activities aim to raise the confidence of students and
build on their knowledge of the world around them, at the same time
allowing the Museum to pilot new educational approaches.

The British Museum is extremely grateful to the Lord Leonard and
Lady Estelle Wolfson Foundation for making this work possible.